The Golden Couple

• Author: Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen
• Genre: Mystery/Thriller
• Publication Date: March 8, 2022
• Publisher: St. Martin’s Press

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

CONTENT WARNING: mention of suicide, infidelity, mention of infertility, mention of miscarriage, murder, grief

If Avery Chambers can’t fix you in 10 sessions, she won’t take you on as a client. Her successes are phenomenal–she helps people overcome everything from domineering parents to assault–and almost absorb the emptiness she sometimes feels since her husband’s death.

Marissa and Mathew Bishop seem like the golden couple–until Marissa cheats. She wants to repair things, both because she loves her husband and for the sake of their 8-year-old son. After a friend forwards an article about Avery, Marissa takes a chance on this maverick therapist, who lost her license due to controversial methods.

When the Bishops glide through Avery’s door and Marissa reveals her infidelity, all three are set on a collision course. Because the biggest secrets in the room are still hidden, and it’s no longer simply a marriage that’s in danger.

The Golden Couple is the next electrifying novel from Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, the #1 New York Times bestselling author duo behind You Are Not Alone, An Anonymous Girl, and The Wife Between Us.

This was one of the ARCs that I’ve been approved for that I was most looking forward to, because I’ve loved everything that this duo has written so far. And it exceeded my expectations, which I wasn’t quite expecting. What better way to center Valentine’s Day than highlighting this book about a troubled couple?

It’s told through the POV of both Avery and Marissa, so we jump back and forth between what each is experiencing, thinking, and feeling. And what initially seems straightforward has multiple levels of complexity that flesh out throughout the story. It was like I could see all the threads of the story, but couldn’t quite piece it all together to figure out what was actually happening until everything smacked me in the face.

As usual, they’ve created characters that I assume fall into specific roles, and then constantly flip that around, cleverly manipulating the characters so that I never knew exactly which ones were the good guys and which were the bad guys. There’s a range of characters, and they’re all well-rounded. No one was all good or all bad, making it harder to pin down who was doing what. There were multiple characters keeping secrets, which made it incredibly difficult to predict the many plot twists. I think one of the biggest things that I appreciated is that is clearly pointed out that Avery’s actions are outside of the scope of therapists, and she has lost her license as a result of prior actions. I changed my mind so many times about how I felt about all of the characters. All except Romeo, the shelter pit bull — he had my heart for the whole book.

This story was exciting, and I read it in basically two sittings. It would have been a single sitting, except for the fact that I needed sleep at some point. I was hooked right from the start, just like all the other books they’ve written, and it didn’t let me go until the end. This is definitely not one to miss!

People who have sat around with me while I’m reading, especially when there’s a surprising reveal, a shocking plot twist, or an unexpected event often look up in alarm when I gasp audibly. The gasp factor is directly related to the number of times I audibly gasp during a reading, and there isn’t an upper limit.

Gasp Factor: 11